Name: Sunni Boot
Age: “I don’t do my age.”
Role: Outgoing CEO, ZenithOptimedia Canada
Why leave now: “There comes a time when you say ‘Am I really adding value?’ and if I’m not get somebody who does. I never want to be the one where people say ‘Man, she stayed around too long.’ That would not be good. “It’s like the song says, ‘You’ve got to know when to fold ‘em. There’s a time for everything, and for me it was time to move on.”
Proudest career moment: “I would say when we formed Optimedia as a standalone [media agency] and then became ZenithOptimedia. It really made us a viable business. $80 million worth of business followed us – it was unheard of that a media company would get that much business.
We have grown from next to nothing to one of the top three companies in the country. We have had an incredible run. The best growth is organic growth, and our clients have rewarded us with more business by their success. As they grow, we grow. We’ve had our share of fantastic wins. We’ve just had great wins with great brands. We served the best global and domestic brands in the business.”
Biggest disappointment: “Any piece of business I don’t win is a disappointment. Disappointments are always the business I didn’t get or the colleague I wanted to hire and didn’t get or somebody I loved who left. Those are all true disappointments.”
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The e-mail subject line read “ZenithOptimedia Canada Management Change,” but a more appropriate description would have been “End of an era in Canadian media.”
ZenithOptimedia Canada CEO Sunni Boot announced Monday that she is stepping down at the end of the year, bringing an end to one of the most celebrated and successful careers in Canadian marketing communications.
Frank Friedman, currently executive vice-president managing director of Optimedia in New York, will replace Boot effective Jan. 1.
Speaking with Marketing the day after Monday’s announcement, Boot said she began laying the groundwork for her departure about 15 months ago. She said that ZenithOptimedia is well positioned for the future, with a strong client roster and an experienced senior leadership team that includes executive vice-president Judy Davey, Zenith Media president Julie Myers and Monique Brosseau, EVP and GM of the agency’s Montreal office.
She also suggested she was no longer willing to make the enormous time commitments required to adequately fill a role such as hers.
“It’s a 24/7, 52-week-a-year job,” said Boot. “I want to do a bit of travelling, and you can’t lead from behind. I can’t take off for six weeks because I’d be tied to my BlackBerry. If there was an opportunity, I’d want to come in; if there was an issue I’d want to come in. The time was right personally and professionally for me to do other things.”
Boot and her boss, ZenithOptimedia North America chairman and CEO Tim Jones, broke the news to staff on Monday, followed by client meetings and an executive dinner. “It was a very emotional day,” said Boot.
Among the questions staff asked Jones was whether Friedman would wear bracelets. Along with her brightly coloured jackets and stockings, multiple bracelets were one of Boot’s signature accoutrements.
She plans to stay on with ZenithOptimedia through the rest of the year to help with the leadership transition and wind up ongoing board work with organizations including the Alliance for Audited Media and measurement body BBM. She resigned from the Canadian Media Directors’ Council earlier this year.
Known as much for her iconoclastic style as she is for her forthright opinion on media matters, Boot departs as a true one-of-a-kind, described by colleagues and counterparts as one of the pillars of the Canadian media industry and praised for her unwavering commitment to the business.
Like most careers, it began inauspiciously, with a summer job typing insertion orders at the now defunct Ronalds-Reynolds. Notoriously cagey when it comes to revealing her age, Boot won’t say when.
She continued to rise through the ranks through Ronalds-Reynolds’ subsequent acquisition by Foote Cone & Belding and its 1988 alliance with Publicis Group, eventually taking the bold step of launching Optimedia Canada as a standalone media operation, which she still regards as a career highlight.
Boot, who received the ACA’s prestigious Gold Medal Award in 1999, would not speak about her legacy. “My colleagues and clients have to decide that,” she said. “All I can say is I’ve been one lucky gal.”
Globe and Mail publisher and CEO Phillip Crawley worked alongside Boot on industry associations including the AAM and its forerunner the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and also sat across from her at the negotiating table.
He described her as a “very fair” negotiator, and a leader who always put the interests of clients ahead of those of her agency.
“She can feel proud that she’s left a considerable mark on our industry,” said Crawley. “Everybody in the industry knows Sunni, she enjoys wide respect in all the different communities she touches on both the buying side and the publishing side.”
Omnicom Media Group Canada CEO Fred Forster echoed Crawley’s remarks, noting that Boot was devoted to making the Canadian media industry better. “She was never afraid to take on the hard questions and work hard to make the industry better on so many levels – whether it was measurement or making sure the CMDC conference was a success,” said Forster. “She has so much energy, it amazes me.
“She does a great job of running her shop and taking care of her clients. She’s a real pro, and the industry’s going to miss her.”
Former Mediabrands Canada chairman Hugh Dow, who retired three years ago, first encountered Boot in 1968 and their careers intersected numerous times over the next four decades. He recalled her as a fierce competitor and a passionate and articulate advocate for media.
“Sunni speaks her mind, she’s never been a shrinking violet,” he said. “She makes her opinions known, and with the amount of experience she’s had over the years she has accumulated enormous wisdom and experience.”
Boot said that she leaves with no regrets. “I’ve had the privilege of working with the best global and domestic brands in the business and I’ve had the incredible good fortune of working with great media companies. Every day I walk in I work with smart, wonderful, collaborative people.
“I’ve had the most phenomenal run in this business – it has rewarded me in so many ways.”
